EU Nation Slams Reported US Lifting of Limits on Long-Range Weapons
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Warmongers in the US and EU are ignoring public opinion in their efforts to expand the conflict in Ukraine to a global scale, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has said.
His remarks follow claims by multiple Western outlets on Sunday that the administration of outgoing US President Joe Biden has reversed its long-standing policy of not allowing Kiev to use American-made ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile Systems) to hit targets inside internationally recognized Russian territory, RT reported.
Ukraine is reportedly expected to deploy the US-supplied missiles in and around Russia’s Kursk Region, where an incursion by Kiev’s forces has been underway since early August. The White House has so far made no official statements on the issue.
The alleged move by Washington “is not only antidemocratic, but also extremely dangerous,” Szijjarto wrote in a post on Facebook on Monday.
"It seems that the pro-war forces, in their final desperation, will not shy away from the worst, that is, expanding the war in Ukraine to a global scale,” he warned.
By reportedly lifting the ban on deep strikes into Russia, “the pro-war mainstream in Washington and Brussels has launched a final, desperate attack on the new reality,” the foreign minister of the EU and NATO member-state insisted.
This “new reality” emerged with the victory of “pro-peace presidential candidate” Donald Trump in the US presidential election, and the “advance of patriotic forces in Europe,” he explained.
Voters in the US and EU have decided to support “pro-peace, patriotic forces,” but “the pro-war politicians, who were voted out of power, are unwilling to acknowledge the will of the people,” Szijjarto said.
Trump’s pick for national security advisor, Mike Waltz, told Fox News on Monday that the possible lifting of the ban on deep strikes into Russia is “another step up the escalation ladder. And nobody knows where this is going.”
The chairman of the Russian State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, suggested that 81-year-old Biden, nearing the end of his life, might be “dreaming of eternity” and wants to “pull America under with him, and maybe the entire world as well.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin previously warned that Moscow would view any attacks on Russia’s internationally recognized territory using American-supplied weaponry as NATO entering the conflict directly, given that Kiev is unable to fire sophisticated systems without Western assistance and targeting data. The Russian leader warned that in such circumstances, Moscow may opt for an asymmetrical response, by arming groups or countries hostile to Washington – such as North Korea – with advanced weaponry.